Shortly before the last day of school in June, the national media outlet The Free Press published an article with the dramatic headline “Reading, Writing, and Racism: The Three R’s of Philly Public Schools,” right above an illustration of an American flag set ablaze. It chronicled the ways in which the School District’s Director of Social Studies Curriculum Ismael Jimenez has become a lightning rod because of his personal social and political opinions — beliefs his critics contend are bleeding into the classroom.

The article laid out excerpts of one optional curricula (12th grade social studies) Jimenez has provided to teachers, including: asking students to replace the Star Spangled Banner with another song once they consider America’s legacy of racism and white supremacy; and teac

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